Watching the horrendous pictures that came out of Norway, and looking at the daily headlines full of looming chaos, stagnated employment, frustration, divided government, economic uncertainty (is the “debt-ceiling crisis” a true “crisis” or extended misdirection?) and more, it’s easy to think that evil is gaining on us — that it is winning.
In her column, A Word in Season, Pat Gohn looks at this season of trepidation and uncertainty and her word is this: do not fall prey to that illusion:
Amid shock and dismay, and our wrestling with the presence of evil, there is also God—who speaks a word in the face of evil and death.
That word is Providence—Divine Providence.
In our finite minds, we often mistakenly see good and evil as equal powers; they are not.
But our minds are so impressed and distressed by evil that we are tempted to believe it.
The truth is that evil is limited; it comes from created sources. Goodness, by contrast, is an attribute of an uncreated, almighty God—the Author of creation—and God’s Providence encompasses and upholds all of creation. Goodness outweighs evil because it originates and flows from God.
This is solid catechesis, not pie-in-the-sky, and if you’re feeling beset and besieged, you should read it all
Some very particular evils are ending. Evil tends to end spectacularly, usually with a desperate attempt to grab a little more fuel to burn. How can anyone argue the U.S.G. needs to go into more debt in order to pay off its existing debt? And yet, politicians do, and they will no doubt raise the debt ceiling. At some point, though, the game will stop. The unpleasantness that is coming isn’t evidence of evil (even though there will undoubtedly be acts of evil committed) but evidence that evil cannot continue indefinitely in this world.
Friends of mine have come up with some excellent analysis. Here’s one:
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/07/28/was-anders-breivik-a-fascist-or-something-else/ (see also comments)
There’s a lot more that I’ve seen but I can’t gather it all together now because I’m going out. Bye
It is the Via Dolorosa. People wondered the same thing as the Man of Sorrows went to His death.
One problem with diagnosing Breivik as sheerly racist, is that he murdered fellow Norwegians, not Moslems. In fact, at some points in his rambling screed, he actually puts forward the idea that his “Knights Templars”, or whoever the heck he thinks he’s working for, should form alliances with the jihadis.
If, by some twist of fate, there were no problems with Islam at the moment, and no socialism, Breivik would, sadly, lacking any other intervention, have found some other people to kill, ostensibly to inspire the rest of us to great and wonderful things—something which all terrorists, at all times, claim to be doing.
I suspect it’s only a trick of fate that led down the twisted path of white nationalism, as opposed to, say, converting to Islam, joining something like Baader Menihof, heading to Gaza to support the Palstinians or attacking research labs, to free lab animals.
Even Jack the Ripper, as I recall, claimed to be ridding the streets of “loose” women; as the sages of the Borscht Belt would say, “They’ve got a million of ‘em!”
Me’self, I think Breivik was plainly, and sheerly, crazy. Crazy people are actually quite good at coming up with excuses for why they do what they do, as witness the Unibomber, whose manifesto Breivik plagerizes extensively. Hmmm, perhaps the environmental movement was to blame, for his rampage? Or, maybe we should blame Tolkien, beause Breivik was, allegedly, listening to music from “Lord of the Rings” as he went on his rampage.
Thank you for the link. I needed to read that today.
Very thought provoking and as you know, on my mind.
The reason why he killed white Norwegians rather than Muslims is that these particular people were leftists, and he considered them Muslim-loving traitors and in fact even worse than brown people in tht regard. No one has really addressed why it was a left-wing organisation he attacked, apart from Glenn Beck, whose interventions were as vile as ever.